Nicolaï Week-End à Deauville (2011): A Perfumer Reworks a Formula...When Muguet Becomes a Political Note {New Perfume}

Two years ago in 2009, perfumer Patricia de Nicolaï founder and the principal nose for Nicolaï composed a limited-edition of a new fragrance called Week-End à Deauville (Weekend in Deauville.) I reviewed it here. In the spring of 2011, a new version of Week-End à Deauville has been launched.

According to press officer Sophie d'Auber, "Patricia reworked this green floral, dressing it with floral and fruity notes."...

Re-reading my 2009 review I realize that then I noted that the muguet note in the composition was not very prominent, a natural consequence of stricter legislation regarding the use of aromachemicals employed to design the scent of muguet which cannot be extracted. Diorissimo by Dior has sadly been affected by this evolution in the most obvious fashion although the latest iteration has brought back a bit more balance to the reformulation.

Going back to the new press release, I am made to think that the discreet muguet note in the original Week-End à Deauville was involuntarily so, apparently, since Patricia de Nicolaï is using the new formulation as an exercise in overcoming obstacles that are sometimes thought to be insurmountable.

While she is acknowledging with some measure of discontent that she is forced to kiss "Lilial, Lyral, Hydroxycitronellal" goodbye, she is also proposing an exercise in resilience and inventiveness around regulation constraints which she says are weighing down each day more on the fragrance industry. Her work as the president of the Osmothèque in France invites her to take position on political issues and she has done so with her latest reworking of Week-End à Deauville where the muguet note has been invested with political meaning.

I have a sample of the new jus and will be interested to do a side-by-side comparison with the previous formulation.

I have to say that muguet as the scent of a political manifesto is a novel accord to be smelled in today's perfumery.